Previously on “What’s That Grub?”
Back in October, we found this larva in Sam’s dresser drawer:
At the time, I didn’t know what it was, although we guessed it was something predatory based on the way that it moved. It was pretty clear that identifying it would require raising it to adulthood, so I put it into a small plastic baby-food container, poked a couple of holes in the lid, and took a whirl at it.
S_ caught this huge beetle for me near the end of July, I don’t remember if she caught it in the house, or outdoors[1].
I’m pretty sure it’s a New House Borer, Arhopalus productus. Once you get beetles this large, there generally aren’t a lot of possiblities, and the two dimples on the pronotum behind the head are supposed to be pretty characteristic of the species. If she caught it indoors, that wouldn’t be too surprising, because they are commonly found in new houses[2] within the first year after construction. They are one of the few wood-borers whose larvae infest dry, dead wood. Like, for example, piled lumber in a lumberyard.
On January 10, I caught this tiny gnat when it landed on my computer screen while I was reading my email. I had to freeze it to get it to hold still while I took pictures
This isn’t the first time little gnats landed on my computer screen, they are constantly around the house at a low level and are drawn to lights. Such as a computer screen in an otherwise dimly-lit room.
Sam caught this one in the yard on July 30. She kept it in a box with some grass to eat for about a day, but ultimately decided that it would be better off if she let it go.
The distinguishing features on it are the black patch on the shoulders just above the front legs; the nearly clear forewings with irregular dark splotches on them; the dark bands running diagonally across the thighs on the hind legs; and the white lines on the top edges of the wings that meet about halfway down the back.
S_ found this rather attractively-colored beetle on our window on July 20, and it was large enough that I just took the pictures without a macro lens in the sunlight, with the beetle on my finger [1]
The combination of black and orange is warning coloration that we have seen before, indicating that this beetle probably is foul tasting and/or toxic.
This is why it is a good idea to quarantine new plants that you bring home.
This little bugger is one of dozens that we found on a potted orchid that we were given by a friend (who incidentally raises a lot of orchids). We’d been keeping this new plant separate from our other house plants, not so much by intent as because there wasn’t room with the others. It’s a good thing we did, because once an infestation of parasitic insects like these gets established, it is darned hard to get rid of them.
On December 5, we got a Christmas tree. Sam picked out a Balsam Fir, which we brought home and set up, with no particular problems[1]. But then, on December 22, S_ found a few dozen of these little guys suddenly appearing in the house. Coincidence? I think not.
Michelle[1] sent me this set of pictures of a spider on the cut end of a log some time ago, but I have just now settled down to try and figure out what kind of spider it actually is.
While we did find this one inside the house, it was our own fault: he was carried in on some lettuce that we harvested from the garden in August.
For scale, that’s my knuckle he was crawling on, so he was not very big – about 6 or 7 mm long, and pretty skinny.
So, this past summer while we were at a friend’s Canada Day[1] party, Sam and I spotted a number of these little guys crawling around on the wooden frame of their swingset. Since the graph paper squares are only 1 mm, that makes this particular one only about 2 mm long.
